Towards the investigation of hot and compressed nuclear matter in heavy-ion collisions

The subject of the review is the behavior of nuclear matter formed in heavy-ion collisions in a wide range of energies: from moderate energies corresponding to the formation of a two-phase liquid--gas state, to high energies leading to the formation of the hadron-gas phase, and ultrahigh energies associated with the possible transition of the hadrons into a quark--gluon plasma. Ways of obtaining information about the equation of state of heated and compressed nuclear matter and also the results of experimental and theoretical studies in this direction are discussed